Picture adapted for coating with powdered material



Sept. 17, 1968 w. RIVA 3,402,093

PICTURE ADAPTED FOR COATING WITH POWDERED MATERIAL Filed Feb. 18, 1965 FIG. I

fill-4114b 54%;: L==% 2% IO ll 28 26 INVENTOR. WILLIAM RIVA ATTORNEYS,

United States Patent 3,402,093 PICTURE ADAPTED FOR COATING WITH POWDERED MATERIAL William Riva, London, England, assignor to Flock Art Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Feb. 18, 1965, Ser. No. 433,557 7 Claims. (Cl. 161-37) The present invention relates to pictures and particularly pictures which are adapted to have varying areas thereon coated with different colors of a material such as flocking, colored sugar grains, colored salt or metal granules or other like materials.

In the past pictures adapted to such coloring have consisted of a backing sheet having its upper surface coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive to which a cover sheet is applied, the cover sheet having a design die cut therein, the cutting penetrating only through the upper sheet so that various portions of that sheet may be sequentially removed, flocking or other colored material being sprinkled on the exposed areas immediately after they have been exposed. As can readily be seen this provides a simple method of applying different colors to various areas of a picture.

A picture such as that briefly described above is described in detail in Leika Patent No. 2,876,575 issued Mar. 10, 1959. Although the picture disclosed in this patent can be colored by flocking or like material with reasonably good results it is subject to a number of disadvantages. One of these is that since the die cut areas are coextensive with the pressure sensitive adhesive, there is a tendency for the flocking to form a rather indefinite line where two shades or colors lie adjacent each other. This is particularly true if the colors are placed on the figure in an order other than the preferred one. For example, in working with flock on such a picture, it is preferable that the dark shades be applied first since if the reverse is true the already applied light shades are apt to be smudged by the darker shades.

As will be obvious, there is no way in the structure shown by Leika to prevent flocking which is to be applied to one area from being transferred to adjacent areas and it is substantially imperative that this occur in order that the covering in one area be completed to the margin of that area.

Another disadvantage of the structure disclosed in the Leika patent is that there is no outline of the color areas as might be done by use of a contrasting color, but rather two areas of different colors meet along a fine line.

In accordance with my invention the above advantages are overcome by utilizing a relatively thick patterned sheet of cardboard or plastic which is applied to the pressure sensitive adhesive and to which a second sheet of pressure sensitive adhesive is applied. The patterned cardboard or plastic consists primarily of boundary bands which separate areas which are to be colored differently from one another, the bands being sufliciently wide so that there is a distinct separation, and likewise sufliciently wide so that the flocking or other powdered material may be distributed throughout an area without danger that it will inadvertently be applied in undesired areas.

It is an object of the invention to provide a picture adapted to be covered by the application of powdered material to selected areas thereof.

It is another object of the invention to provide such a picture wherein the areas to be selectively colored are separated by bands of relatively thick material applied to a base sheet coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive on its upper surface.

It is another object of the invention to provide such a picture wherein the base sheet and intermediate thicker ice patterned layer are covered by a thin sheet of material having a pressure sensitive adhesive on its underside which layer is die cut after being affixed to the upper surface of the patterned layer in such manner that the cutting penetrates the cover sheet only and in general in such manner that the line of cut extends along the center line of the boundary bands of the intermediate layer.

Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent when the following description is considered in connection with the annexed drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is aperspective view of a picture in accordance with my invention, the view being broken away at various points to show the construction of the picture;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical cross sectional view taken on the plane of the line 22 of FIGURE 1 and showing the picture as it appears before any of the top layer has been removed and of course before any coloring material has been applied; and

FIGURE 3 is a view similar to FIGURE 2 but showing the picture after removal of a portion of the upper sheet and application of flocking material to the lower sheet.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown at 10 a base sheet which would normally be of light cardboard or heavy paper, this base sheet being coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive 11. Placed on the base sheet 10 is a patterned sheet 12 of relatively thick material such as cardboard or plastic preferably having a glossy upper surface.

This material has bands 13 formed therein which lie between areas which are to be differently colored. Sheet 12 thus forms depressed areas 14 coated with pressure sensitive adhesive. A sheet 15 of relatively light weight material such as paper, is coated with pressure sensitive adhesive and is adhered to the upper surface of the cardboard or plastic 12, care being taken to see that the material 15 makes contact only with the upper surface of the cardboard 12 and not with the pressure sensitive adhesive coating 11 on the base sheet 10.

Sheet 15 is die out along the center lines of the boundary bands of material of sheet 12 which separate areas to be differently colored and in like manner is die cut at a slight distance from the inner edge of the margins of the sheet 12.

As shown in FIGURE 1, a window 16 is die' cut in the sheet 12 by cutting out the representations of the window panes 17, 18, 20 and 21. The sheet 15 is then die cut as shown at 22 toproduce a removable square slightly larger than the square formed by the four panes, thus leaving a margin of the material of sheet 12 designated 23 around the panes. In the same manner the gable area of the house depicted is formed by the triangular cutout 24 in the sheet 12 and is exposed by removing the slightly larger triangular piece '25 of the overlying sheet 15 which overlying sheet is die cut to this slightly larger dimension, the cutting extending only through the overlying sheet and being frequently known as kiss cutting.

Other portions of the picture are formed in a similar manner to that described above in connection with the window and gable section. For example, the door frame is formed of bands 26, 27 and 28 of material 12 which thus outline the door and the overlying sheet 15 is die cut so that the portion thereof which is removed extends ap-.

proximately to the center line of the pieces 26, 27 and 28 and likewise extends slightly below the bottom of the door frame as seen in FIGURE 1.

As will be clear from the above the various pieces of the upper sheet such as 22 are removed in a predetermined order and colored material such as flocking, colored salt, etc. applied to the area exposed by each piece is removed. In the particular instance, for example, the gable area 24 3 might be gray, the window area represented by sections 17, 18, 20 and 21 blue, the door area red and the area surrounding the door and the window white. The chimney might well, of course, be red.

The material of the layer 12 may of course be any color desired. I have used black very eflectively since this serves to give an outline of the various areas which is unmistakable and which serves to delineate the picture much more clearly than is possible when the older method of having the colored areas directly adjoining each other is used. It is of course obvious that colors other than black will serve the same purpose and that irrespective of color the use of the thick material such as cardboard or plastic makes it possible to apply flocking to a depressed area such as 14 and to shake the picture to distribute the flocking while being assured that the flocking will not be distributed in other areas as would be the case if the thick material were not present.

As indicated hereinabove it is preferable to utilize the darker shades first so that if any material does find its way into an area where it should not be it will not result in smudging. As indicated above, due to the use of the thick patterned sheet 12 the likelihood of material being placed in an area by accident is diminished. i-keyih-acor7o Referring now to FIGURE 3 it will be noticed that the sheet 12 has been removed from the area of the door in this figure and that flocking material designated 30 has been placed in the depressed area 14 and distributed as by shaking so that it evenly coats that area and is of course held in position by the pressure sensitive adhesive.

In general the various areas of the sheet 15 will bear a letter or a number or some other designation which will instruct the user as to the color to be preferred for that area. In some instances this may be done by printing stripes of that desired color on the upper side of sheet 15. In other instances the areas may be numbered and the colors of flocking or other material likewise numbered.

I have found that when pictures of the type heretofore described are colored, particularly by children, there is a tendency to utilize the colors in an order which is not to be preferred, that is, a tendency to utilize the lighter shades first which, as indicated, is apt to result in smudging. For this reason I purpose to supply my pictures with coloring material such as flocking in which the various shades are packed in a single tube being separated by separators of cotton batting or the like by placing the colors in the tube with the darkest shade at the top. There is thus substantial assurance that the colors will be applied in the proper order.

In addition to the many advantages heretofore mentioned it will be realized that by the use of the relatively thick layer of material 12 a picture is given a three dimensional effect and becomes much more attractive than do pictures formed by methods heretofore used.

While I have described a preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that I wish to be limited not by the foregoing description, but solely by the claims granted to me.

What is claimed is:

1. In a structure adapted to be colored by application of finely divided coloring material thereto to form a picture, in combination, a base sheet, a coating of pressure sensitive adhesive on the upper surface of said base sheet, a patterned sheet of relatively thick material adhered to said base sheet by said adhesive, said patterned sheet comprising boundary bands forming a picture and defining areas to be colored, and a cover sheet overlying said patterned sheet and adhered thereto by a coating of pressure sensitive adhesive on the under surface of said cover sheet, said cover sheet being out along the boundary bands whereby portions of said cover sheet can be removed in sequence to expose the adhesive of said base sheet in discrete areas to be colored by sprinkling finely divided coloring material thereon.

2. A structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said patterned sheet is formed of cardboard having a thickness of at least VB" and a glossy upper surface to prevent adhesive coating from said cover sheet from adhering thereto.

3. A structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said patterned sheet is formed of plastic material of at least Vs" thickness.

4. A structure in accordance with claim 1, wherein said cover sheet is cut along substantially the center lines of said boundary bands.

5. A structure in accordance with claim 1, wherein said patterned sheet is formed of a color differing from any finely divided material to be applied thereby accentuating the boundaries between areas to be colored.

6. A structure in accordance with claim 1 wherein said patterned sheet is black.

7. A structure as claimed in claim 2, wherein said base and cover sheets have a thickness in the range of from 26 mils.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 625,463 5/1899 Barthelset al. 1,328,368 1/1920 Cotoli. 2,876,575 3/1959 Leika 156-248 3,001,311 9/1961 Holsapple 156248 XR EARL M. BERGERT, Primary Examiner.

M. L. KATZ, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A STRUCTURE ADAPTED TO BE COLORED BY APPLICATION OF FINELY DIVIDED COLORING MATERIAL THERETO TO FORM A PICTURE, IN COMBINATION, A BASE SHEET, A COATING OF PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE ON THE UPPER SURFACE OF SAID BASE SHEET, A PATTERNED SHEET OF RELATIVELY THICK MATERIAL ADHERED TO SAID BASE SHEET BY SAID ADHESIVE, SAID PATTERNED SHEET COMPRISING BOUNDARY BANDS FORMING A PICTURE AND DEFINING AREAS TO BE COLORED, AND A COVER SHEET OVERLYING SAID PATTERNED SHEET AND ADHERED THERETO BY A COATING OF PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE ON THE UNDER SURFACE OF SAID COVER SHEET, SAID COVER SHEET BEING CUT ALONG THE BOUNDARY BANDS WHEREBY PORTIONS OF SAID COVER SHEET CAN BE REMOVED IN SEQUENCE TO EXPOSE THE ADHESIVE OF SAID BASE SHEET IN DISCRETE AREAS TO BE COLORED BY SPRINKLING FINELY DIVIDED COLORING MATERIAL THEREON. 